Contempt of court laws have always been toothless, but the Internet and the smartphone have made it clear they are not fit for purpose, as demonstrated in the current “monstering” of murder suspect Chris Jefferies, says Brian Cathcart
Has Lukashenko given up flirting with the west, asks Olga Birukova
Party, a new edgy magazine with contributions from film directors, artists and novelists has been indefinitely shelved because no publisher was willing to run it, confirmed founder and chief editor Han Han on his blog. Han, best-selling novelist,...
Nikolai Khalezin in hiding after the KGB issue arrest warrant for the co-founder of the Belarus Free Theatre. Mike Harris reports
The Ministry of Truth is an Orwellian notion. But in China directives dictating what newspapers can and cannot write about actually exist. China Digital Times (CDT), an excellent online publication co-ordinated by Xiao Qiang, director of the China...
One of the main men behind China’s Great Firewall recently got a taste of his own medicine. Fang Binxing, credited with building a system which is used to block websites in China, shut down his microblog earlier this week after Chinese netizens,...
Trainee accountant Paul Chambers, who was convicted of sending a “menacing communication” after he joked on Twitter that he would blow Doncaster’s Robin Hood Airport “sky high” if his flight was affected by weather, has won the right to appeal the decision, Index on Censorship has learned
Iranian director Jafar Panahi has been sentenced to six years in prison for "colluding in gathering and making propaganda against the regime". Panahi has also been banned from directing films or speaking to the press for 20 years.
Entire staff of Charter97 held by KGB – Index on Censorship learns of prison abuse – Natalia Koliada released
Protest against mass arrests in Belarus 6pm 21 December, Belarus Embassy, London W8 5DL
Index has learned that Special Forces broke into the apartment of Nikolai Khalezin, art director of Belarus Free Theatre, this morning [20 December] and arrested him. He is reported to have been taken to unknown destination. He is already third...
Reports are emerging from Belarus that opposition leaders Andrei Sannikov, Nikolai Statkevich, Rygor Katusev and Vitaly Rymanshevsky have been arrested by police. Sannikov had earlier declared a provisional coalition in Belarus, after thousands...